


A Patron Called Truth

by CreativeMercinary



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: And Truth's the father, But you really should have seen that coming, Eventual warlock!Alphonse, Gen, I mean patron, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Truth, Patron!Truth, Rating may change to teen with later chapters, Scheming and plans, Warlock!Ed, minor DnD AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:14:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24234862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CreativeMercinary/pseuds/CreativeMercinary
Summary: Everything comes with a price. That's the basis behind the Law of Equivalent Exchange. Nothing can be gained without giving something of equal value in return.And if Truth took something from a chosen few who visited their domain in exchange for a fraction of their power? Well, that was their business, and their business alone.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 25





	1. The Price of Power

**Author's Note:**

> This fic wouldn't exist if it weren't for the members of another fic's discord planting this idea in my mind. So, thank you guys! Also, if you haven't read silentwalrus' Snipers Solve 99% of all Problems, you definitely should.  
> And another great thank you to my wonderful beta, YoinksAndAwaaay. This thing wouldn't be nearly as good without them.

Truth stared at the blond child in amusement. It wasn’t every day that someone returned to their domain. Especially not a few minutes after the initial visit. Blood was gushing from where his leg used to be, but he glared at them as if he didn’t feel the pain.

He was cute. Like an angry puppy.

“Oh?” Truth said, voice dripping with false surprise. “You’ve come back.”

“Give him back,” he growled.

“Certainly.” They tilted their head, eternal grin plastered on their face. “What will you give me in exchange? Your heart? Your sight?”

“I don’t care. Just give him back.”

They continued, undeterred. “But what about your voice? Your hearing?” They gasped. “Your memories?”

His eyes widened before glaring again, but he was trembling.

“I said I don’t care!” He screamed, slamming his fist on the ground. “Take it all if you want! Just give my brother back!”

Truth chuckled as the Gate began to open, black hands grasping at the boy once again. He struggled against their hold just as much as the first time, even though it was just as futile.

“Very well. As you wish.”

The boy was pulled, screaming, through the Gate and the doors swung closed behind him. They’d just take his arm. It’d be on him whether he died of blood loss or not.

They looked forward to seeing what this new warlock of theirs would do.

Truth had a feeling they would quite enjoy it.

  
  


~

  
  


Truth’s new warlock took to his new abilities like a fish to water. He didn’t even think before clapping to transmute his automail arm into a blade. The realization only hit him after his brother - now inhabiting a suit of armor - brought it to his attention.

Truth chuckled at the confusion roiling off his warlock. Did he think their meeting, the creation of their pact, was just a dream? Was he wondering why his brother didn’t have the abilities he did?

His brother… hmm.

He hadn’t appealed to Truth as a potential warlock. At least, not initially. They found him to be too soft for their taste, not to say that their chosen warlock wasn’t. But the younger Elric boy was too complacent in decision-making. Too willing to follow his brother so long as they wanted the same thing.

But the way that he questioned his older brother’s newfound capabilities… there was a hint of something promising in it, a degree of criticality hidden under the naïveté. Maybe the younger of the two would also make a fine warlock after all.

Truth sat cross-legged, resting their elbow on their knee and their chin on their hand.

There was conflict brewing, and having both brothers under Truth’s domain could prove useful. They'd have to wait and see. Any encounter would be a long time off, regardless.

They dropped their arm, letting it hang off their knee. The brothers continued sparring below them. Truth could wait.

Time was something they had more than plenty of.


	2. The Price of Piety

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, that took longer than expected. Next chap should take less than a few months to get out.

It was another few years before Truth's new warlock intrigued them, yet again. Aside from his taste in aesthetic - of which Truth had no influence over whatsoever - he had been relatively uninteresting. There was that one occasion in Youswell where he and his brother got a corrupt officer dishonorably discharged, but it was a short time before the brothers returned to their research.

That is, until Liore. Truth may have had a hand in getting them there. Nudging the knowledge of Father Cornello's miracles into the right rumor mills was quite easy. It was only a matter of time before the young warlock went to investigate.

He and his brother stood with the townspeople, watching the performance Cornello was putting on. The good father's gaze fell on them for a moment too long, but didn't acknowledge them otherwise. It would be near-impossible to forget a 6-foot-tall suit of armor. The warlock could have gone unnoticed on his own, but his vibrantly red cloak destroyed any advantage that his height - or lack thereof - gave him. As foolish as Cornello was, Truth was glad to see that he was no idiot. That would have proven quite boring, indeed.

The brothers, on the other hand, more than had what Cornello lacked in insight. It took a single "magic trick" for them to recognize alchemy for what it was and a few more to identify the philosopher's stone adorning the father's finger.

\-- Truth could feel the agony of numerous souls within the stone from where they sat by the Gate. It was nothing compared to the shrieks elsewhere in Amestris, but Truth felt it all the same. --

It wasn’t long after the father’s performance that the brothers approached the temple. They encountered a young woman before they could enter. The warlock wasted no time to insult the woman’s misplaced faith through blunt observation. His brother quickly attempted to diffuse the situation.

Their dynamic was nothing new, Truth has seen it play out countless times. This time, however, Truth took the occasion to study the brother’s dynamic. The two had – most likely unintentionally – the whole good-cop bad-cop routine almost perfected. Half the time, when the person subjected to it wasn’t immediately turned away by the warlock’s abrasiveness, the person was more than happy to help the younger, and nicer, of the two.

The younger brother, a peacemaker by nature, never took issue with the dynamic, typically too relieved by deterring the conflict to complain. He still held the tendency to appease others, but it was typically used to offset the elder’s abrasive demeanor.

This time, however, it seemed like the warlock capitalized on his attitude on his own. He convinced the woman to bring them to Cornello so they could “atone for their sacrilege.”

Father Cornello, on the other hand, was not so easily fooled. He revealed himself on the landing above the brothers after they subdued several of his lackeys. He effortlessly convinced the woman to betray, and shoot at, the brothers. The woman had good aim for someone wielding a gun for the first time, taking the younger brother’s helmet clean off. The shock of the woman and Cornello at the younger Elric’s incorporeal condition was an amusing sight, to say the least. It wasn’t common for his state to be revealed, and even when it was, the reactions weren’t always entertaining.

Since human resistance proved ineffective, Cornello seemed to decide that a more feral approach would be better suited.

Feral being a pair of chimeras.

The creatures assaulted the brothers. One of the creatures bit the warlock’s arm, but could little more than grapple the metal limb. If anything, the ineffective attack allowed the young warlock to display his inexhaustible flair for dramatics. He pulled his now-ruined red cloak off - it rippled as it fell to the ground - to reveal his automail arm.

Even through the growing shock, the few gears Cornello had in his mind began to turn. He quickly verbalized his conclusion. Truth had to give him credit, correctly guessing at the Elrics’ attempt at human transmutation was something that they thought was beyond his capabilities. Cornello could, apparently, extrapolate well enough, but he clearly lacked any skill in insight. It was evidenced when he was persuaded by the succubus - and his own lust for power - to carry the stone with him. It was clear once again when his own words revealed his disingenuous nature to the woman that would have killed at his command just moments ago.

The warlock and his brother dispatched the chimeras soon after. It was only at this point when the good father decided to participate in the fight, although, with the philosopher’s stone in his possession, it was no longer much of a fight. He effortlessly transmuted giant bullets that launched themselves at the brothers. As brash as Truth’s warlock was, he knew when he was grossly outclassed. He retreated from the temple quickly with his brother and the woman in tow.

Once the three were in relative safety, they - the brothers while the woman looked on - took the time to devise a plan. In general, Truth found the brothers voicing their thought processes to be quite enlightening. With a philosopher’s stone in Cornello’s possession, a direct assault would be impossible. The brothers lacked the stealth to sneak back into the temple and subdue Cornello quietly, even if the temple’s guards were not on high alert. The younger Elric sat up straighter as a metaphorical lightbulb went off in his head. He began explaining his idea quickly, as if he were worried that it’d slip away if he didn’t share it immediately. The warlock nodded, a wicked grin slowly spreading across his face as he followed his brother’s train of thought. If they couldn’t fight Cornello, then they would eliminate his social power base.

Getting Cornello to confess to misleading the town was laughably easy. He only caught on after the warlock revealed the broadcasting device in his hand. The moments it took the good father to process what happened was plenty of time for Truth’s warlock to destroy the cane-turned-machine gun in Cornello’s hand.

What happened next could simply be called predictable. Cornello’s subsequent transmutation rebounded, resulting in his arm becoming a grotesque amalgam of limb and metal. Deciding that wasn’t horrific enough, Cornello transmuted himself into a monstrosity.

Truth would have pulled Cornello to their domain for the use of human transmutation, but they couldn’t. A philosopher’s stone allowed the wielder to disobey the laws of the universe while abiding by the Law of Equivalent Exchange, preventing Truth from getting directly involved. Which, in turn, was why Truth’s warlock was currently fighting against a priest-turned-monstrosity.

Cornello’s newfound strength did nothing to counter his lack of combat experience and fighting tactics. The warlock made short work of him. With the stone’s power nearly drained, Cornello reverted to his original form as the once-shining jewel grew dim. Now but a dismal purple-gray, the useless stone fell from the ring, shattering as it hit the stone floor. Both combatants watched the stone-dust settle in surprise before the warlock began interrogating Cornello.

The shaken man, regrettably, didn’t impart any of his useful knowledge to the warlock. The stone had fallen into his hands through “a beautiful woman and her dimwitted lackey,” which gave Truth’s warlock no insight into the nature of his adversaries. To be fair, the father would not have recognized an inhuman entity, even if he were staring at the Gate.

Having no other business in Liore, the brothers left with no leads beside the physical descriptions of a “woman and her lackey” who at this point could be anywhere. With the brothers gone, Cornello rushed to his office once again, no doubt intending to flee the town. Unfortunately for him, a certain “black-haired woman” was waiting for him.

Truth didn’t feel remorse for Cornello when the homunculus killed him. He should have known what he was getting into when making a deal with those devils.


End file.
